Week 15

Word of the Week: Flummox

Flummox [origin unknown] (1837): Confuse

The word was found in a New York Times article today titled “Regulation of Offshore Rigs Is a Work in Progress.” The following is a link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/us/politics/17regulate.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp

 

The words that I usually pick captures my interest because of its unfamiliarity and “flummox” was no ex exception. I’ve never heard seen the word printed in text or heard it used anywhere else before. The thing that is peculiar about this word is that it has an unknown origin, so it’s a mystery where the word actually derived. The word was used in the following sentence:

“Even some simple questions, like whether a blowout preventer would be above or below water, seemed to flummox some officials, she said.”

 

When I first read the sentence, I assumed that the word meant to surprise. That’s what I inferred based on the context. “Flummox” actually reminds me of the word “perplex,” which has a similar meaning.

 

Catch of the Week:

There were two separate examples of grammar mistakes that I found on a blog. One of the signs states “FOR RESIDENT’S AND THEIR GUESTS ONLY.” The apostrophe should be taken out the word “RESIDENT’S” because the word is in plural form. The other sign states “MOM’S YOUR THE GREATEST HAPPY MOTHERS DAY.”  Several things are wrong with that sign. The word “MOM” should not have an apostrophe because it’s not in the possessive, and “YOUR” should be in a contraction for the word “you are” and not a possessive form. MOTHERS should have an apostrophe because that is the correct spelling of the holiday. The following is a link to the pictorials with grammatical errors that I found on the website: http://www.cedarfortbooks.com/write-right/

 

Headline Challenge:

The Alligator wrote an article on Thursday with the headline “Police ask for students' help in search for local rapist.” To make the headline dense with information, it should be changed to “Rape occurs near campus, police asks students for help.”  Here is the article as it appeared on the newspaper’s website:

Police ask for students' help in search for local rapist

Posted: Thursday, April 14, 2011 11:30 pm | Updated: 10:11 am, Fri Apr 15, 2011.

Kat Bein, Alligator Staff Writer | 0 comments

The Gainesville Police Department is calling on UF students to help them identify, catch and arrest a wanted man who robbed and raped a local woman Sunday.

Because the suspect and the victim are both of college age, and because the crime occurred so near the campus area, police have reason to believe students are their best chance of bringing the suspect to justice, said GPD spokeswoman Tscharna Senn.

On Sunday morning at about 4:30 a.m., a black man unknown to the victim knocked on the door of her home, located near campus on Southwest First Avenue.

When the victim opened the door, the man threatened her with a knife and pushed her through the entrance.

He took her iPod, cellphone and some cash. He then ordered her to strip and forced her to have sex with him.

He left the house on foot.

The man is described as a college-aged black man about 5 feet 10 inches tall with a slim build with short, cropped hair.

He was last seen wearing a black T-shirt, denim jeans and M&M boxer shorts.

Anyone who believes they may have information about the crime or the suspect is asked to call Detective Lorraine Fair at 352-393-7610, or give an anonymous tip at 352-372-7867.

Gainesville Police have canvassed the victim’s neighborhood as well as notified university authorities who have taken it upon themselves to distribute a flier among the Student Body describing the suspect and the crime.

Beyond the hope that students may help catch the rapist, police would like to remind students to be aware of their surroundings and the dangers of answering their doors for strangers.

“He appears to be a stranger, which we don’t see hardly in Gainesville … parents have been calling from all over the place,” Senn said.

“We want to make sure [students] are being very careful who they open their doors to and not to walk alone at night.”

Favorite Passage of the Week:

My favorite passage of the week comes from a profile story of Dr. McKeen that appeared in the Communigator, which can be viewed online by clicking on the following link:

http://www.jou.ufl.edu/pubs/communigator/spring2006/mckeen.php

Week 14

Word of the Week: Intractable

Intractable [L intractabilis, fr. in- + tractabilis tractable] 1: not easily governed, managed, or directed <~problems> 2: not easily manipulated or wrought <~metal> 3: not easily relieved or cured <~pain>.

The word was found in a New York Times article that appeared today regarding the state of the government. The story can be found by clicking on the following link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/us/politics/10debt.html?_r=1&hp

It was used in the following sentence:

“Given the short time frame for action and the prospect of an intractable political clash, leaders in both government and business are already moving to avert a crisis that most likely would be “a recovery-ending event,” as Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, testified recently in the Senate.”

In the context of this sentence and based on how it sounds, “Intractable” seem to mean something that can’t be undone or reversed.  The word appealed to me because it sounded somewhat familiar, yet it was one that I didn’t know the meaning of.

Catch of the Week:

“Clearance” was misspelled as “Claerance” in a picture I found on a website. I found it today. You can access the picture by clicking on the following URL:

http://www.funnytypos.com/starbucks-misspelling/attachment/1013091541/

Headline Challenge:

An article appeared on Friday’s issue of the Alligator titled “Playboy hosts casting call for UF Playmates. I think an appropriate title would be “Playboy hosts casting call for SEC Pictorial.” The following is the full article:

Playboy hosts casting call for UF playmates

Posted: Friday, April 8, 2011 12:12 am | Updated: 12:17 am, Fri Apr 8, 2011.

Greg Luca, Alligator Staff Writer | 0 comments

This week, about 100 Gators had the chance to become bunnies.

Playboy held a casting call in Gainesville on Tuesday and Wednesday for female UF students interested in appearing in its upcoming “Girls of the SEC” pictorial.

Between March 27 and April 19, teams of Playboy representatives will travel to each of the 12 schools in the Southeastern Conference in search of models to grace the magazine’s October issue.

Although it’s still early in the process, UF girls have set themselves apart.

“There’s a certain amount of class and beauty that you can’t find anywhere else than Florida,” said Jared Ryder, a photographer and producer with Playboy. “UF girls are amazing. They’re intelligent and they’re beautiful, and that’s the perfect storm of what we’re looking for.”

The team dispatched to UF was charged with trimming the large pool of applicants down to a group of about 10.

Of those 10, somewhere between one and six will likely appear in the issue, as decided by editors at Playboy headquarters in Chicago.

UF students interested in appearing in the issue were invited to appear at the Hilton University of Florida Conference Center.

The university had no affiliation with the endeavor.

The hopefuls went through an abbreviated photo shoot and filled out a brief questionnaire to see if they met the magazine’s criteria.

“A girl that’s smart, sexy and confident is the total package,” said Stephanie Ortiz, a photographer and producer. “And I think here in Florida you have the total package for sure.”

While most applicants were forced to wait before learning their selection fate, sophomore Gabrielle Rushing was one of the select few quickly ushered to the front of the line.

Ortiz said Rushing came in with the right attitude and personality, and the Playboy editors almost instantly approved her selection.

“It was really exciting, actually, more than nervous,” Rushing said. “Once you overcome the barrier of actually getting there, it’s a rush.”

Although Rushing had never modeled before, she said the Playboy crew made her comfortable with the whole process and turned casting into a breeze.

Playboy was so taken with her that she and another early selection left Gainesville on Thursday for a photo shoot at Ginnie Springs that is said to feature a live gator.

Although the location of the casting was originally kept a secret to eliminate fanfare, Rushing wasn’t at all shy about discussing the process.

She shared the excitement of her selection with friends, sisters, her mom and even her dad, albeit through relay.

“I just called [my sisters] on the phone on the way here, and they were really excited. I told them to tell my dad,” Rushing said. “He is usually supportive of what I do. … I think, after the initial shock, he’ll know it’s okay.”

Favorite Passage of the Week:

My favorite passage of the week is a few lines that I read this week in a column by Dave Barry that was originally published Feb. 22, 2008 titled “A journey into my colon—and yours.” The whole column was hilarious, but this paragraph was especially funny:

“At the clinic I had to sign many forms acknowledging that I understood and totally agreed with whatever the hell the forms said.  Then they led me to a room full of other colonoscopy people, where I went inside a little curtained space and took off my clothes and put on one of those hospital garments designed by sadists perverts, the kind that, when you put it on, makes you feel even more naked than when you are actually naked.”

The article can be found by clicking on the following link:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2009/02/11/427603/dave-barry-a-journey-into-my-colon.html

Week 13

Word of the Week: besieged

Besieged- 1: to surround with armed forces 2 a: to press with request: IMPORTUNE b: to cause worry or distress to: BESET <doubts besieged him>

I saw the word in a New York Times article on Saturday. I could not found any etymology of the word when I looked it up in the dictionary. The word was interesting because it had a hint of familiarity like I probably heard it used before. However, I was unsure of what it meant. It sound like it meant to acquire something, especially based on the context that I read it.. The word was located in the article titled “NATO Airstrike Reportedly Kills Rebels in Libya” It was used in the following sentence:

 

“On the eastern front and in the besieged western city of Misurata, rebel fighters said Saturday that they were anxious about what they perceived as a slowdown in the airstrikes, enabling Colonel Qaddafi to hold on as his forces regroup and advance. Officials said the airstrikes slowed down last week because of bad weather.”

 

The piece can be found by clicking on the following link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/world/africa/03libya.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp

 Catch of the Week:

 On Saturday I found an editing error where Harvard University was misspelled. In the typo, it was spelled as “Harvard Universty” it was missing an i. Here is the link to the grammar problem:

http://www.funnytypos.com/harvard-universty-there-is-no-i-in-univeristy/harvard-mug/

 Headline Challenge:

An article appeared on Friday’s issue of The Alligator with the headline “UF Student Government meets with state lawmakers in Tallahassee.” I proposed that the headline be changed to “UF Student Government meets with Fla. Legislators about education.” Here is the story as it fully appeared on its website:

 UF Student Government meets with state lawmakers in Tallahassee

Elizabeth Behrman and Paul Runnestrand, Alligator Staff Writers | 0 comments

About 70 students packed into a bus and headed to Tallahassee on Tuesday to speak with state lawmakers about issues important to the university.

The students, along with administrators and alumni, met with legislators and discussed everything from including textbooks in Sales Tax Relief Day to preventing cuts in faculty benefits.

“We literally invaded the capital,” said UF Student Body President Ashton Charles.

Members of Florida Blue Key, the service and leadership organization that hosts events such as Gator Growl and Homecoming, participated as part of Gator Day, an annual event put on for students to meet and network with state officials.

“It’s just a really incredible event to be able to go up there and be able to show the influence and importance of the University of Florida,” Charles said.

Students met with leaders such as Senate President Mike Haridopolos, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam.

Charles said she appreciated the opportunity to meet with state leaders and talk about issues that are important to students, such as preserving Bright Futures funds and protecting faculty benefits to keep professors competitive with those at other universities.

“It just epitomizes that having a presence there, a physical presence there, is really crucial to demonstrate the needs of the University of Florida,” she said.

Craig Thompson, president of Florida Blue Key, said the organization worked closely with Gators for Higher Education, the UF Alumni Association and UF President Bernie Machen’s office to schedule speakers and set up a luncheon.

Thompson said the day gave lawmakers a glimpse of the quality of students graduating from UF.

“The day provided an opportunity for the university and its students to show the leadership of Florida the type of students the university is developing and will continue to develop for years to come,” he said.

 

Favorite Passage of the Week:

Tom Shales wrote an obituary about Ray Bolger that appeared in the Washington Post on January 16, 1987. The piece also appeared in “America’s Best Newspaper Writing.” The opening paragraph of the Obit appealed to me because it was clever, and it included something that most J-school students are usually taught to stay away from: using a quote lede. The following is the opening paragraph of the obit by Tom Shales:

 " 'I think I’ll miss you most of all,' Dorothy whispered in the scarecrow’s ear. We shared her sentiment. The Cowardly Lion was funny, the Tin Woodman was dear, but the Scarecrow had soul. Oz wouldn't have been the same without him. The rest of the world won’t be the same without Ray Bolger, the lanky and vivacious vaudevillian who played the Scarecrow, his role of roles, in The Wizard of Oz." 

 

Shales, T. (1987). America’s Best Newspaper Writing R.P. Clark (Ed.). New York, NY: Bedford/St. 

      Martin’s

Week 12

Word of the Week: Draconian

Draconian: [ L dracon-, Draco, fr. GK Drakon Draco (Athenian Lawgiver)] –of, relating to, or characteristic of Draco or the severe code of laws held to have been framed by him.

The word was found in the lede of a New York Times article that was published on March 27. The article can be found by clicking the following link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/world/middleeast/28syria.html?hp

The following is the sentence from which the word was lifted:

The Syrian government tried to ease a grave political crisis on Sunday by blaming armed gangs for killing 12 people in the northwestern port city of Latakia in previous days and promising to soon lift a draconian emergency law that allows the government to arrest and detain without charge.

The word “draconian” in this sentence seemed to mean unjust. The draconian law would allow the government to arrest and detain anyone without charge, which seems unfair to me. I liked the word because it was unusual, and it sounded a lot like Dracula when I first read it. I thought it was funny because of that.

Catch of the Week:

I found a misspelling of the word “newspapers” in a blog online on March 27 that deals with funny typos. The spelling abused the apostrophe. “Newspapers” was spelled as “New’s paper’s.

The article can be found by clicking on the following link:

www.funnytypos.com

Favorite Passage of the Week:

I found an article in Essence Magazine about Idris Elba. It states:

Idris Elba is touching my arm. He’s telling me about Legacy, the small independent film he’s getting ready to shoot in Glasgow, Scotland, in which he stars as an ex-soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress.  He says, “I’m excited about it because it’s real acting, you know what I mean?” I think maybe he’s grabbed by arm for emphasis, to better make his point. But I can’t tell for sure, because the moment he touches me, I get all tingly.


I chose this piece because I think it draws the reader in. It is a nice colloquial piece written in the first person.

Amber J. (2009, Aug.). Our Obsession with Idris Elba. Essence, 40 (4) 92-97 .

Week 11

Word of the Week: Hubristic

The word Hubristic was found in a New York Times Article about the earthquake’s catastrophic effect on Japan. The story was published on March 13. The following is a link to the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world/asia/14seawalls.html?hp

The word was used in the following quote from the article:

“Some critics have long argued that the construction of seawalls was a mistaken,hubristic attempt to control nature as well as the kind of wasteful public works project that successive Japanese governments used to reward politically-connected companies in flush times and then to try to kick-start a stagnant economy.”

In this sentence “hubristic” sounds synonymous with frivolous.

Hubristic- [ Gk hybris]“exaggerated pride or self confidence.”

The word hubristic (like all other foreign words) caught my attention because of the way it sounds to my ears. If it’s a word that I think sounds interesting and will most likely make an attempt to use in my everyday vocabulary, I’ll make a note of it.

Catch of the Week: “Students eat, listen at Read-A-Thon”

The following article from The Alligator contains a fact error and is great example of lack of focus.

http://www.alligator.org/news/campus/article_1e869878-46a5-11df-a5c8-001cc4c03286.html

I work at Marston Science Library, and I was scrolling The Alligator’s archive about the coverage of George A. Smathers Libraries’ events and I came across this article, which was written in April of last year. The article referred to the annual reading event that the library hosts as the Book-A-Thon instead of the Read-A-Thon. The headline has the name of the event correct. However, it wasn’t consistent with the text, which as mentioned before, referred to the event as the Book-A-Thon.

Headline Challenge: “City Commission Approves New Bus Routes to UF”

The following is a link to the article:

http://www.alligator.org/news/local/article_c6586238-4605-11e0-b6dc-001cc4c002e0.html

New headline: New UF Bus Routes in Aug. Cost City $646,206

Favorite passage of the Week: Metal to Bone by Anne Hull

The following lines demonstrate literary journalism at its best:

“Four nights a week, Lisa clocked in for duty at the Tampa police station on the frayed outskirts of downtown. In uniform she was petite and muscular, like a beautiful action-figure doll, with piercing green eyes and size 4 steel-toe boots. She kept her hair back in a French braid. Even under a streetlight, her skin seemed carved in pearl.”

I chose this as my favorite passage of the week because it is so well written. It is very descriptive. It has that “show me don’t tell me factor” that Prof. Foley is always encouraging his students to exhibit when it comes to their writing. Instead of saying she had small feet; Hull described the size of her shoe. In addition, she could have said the police officer was pale or white but instead she said “her skin seemed carved in pearl.” Beautiful!

The excerpt is from America’s Best Newspaper Writing: second edition by Roy Peter Clark and Christopher Scanlan of the Poynter Institute.

Clark, P. R. & Scanlan C. (2006) America’s Best Newspaper Writing: A Collection of ASNE

 Prizewinners. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Week 8

Word of the Week: Effigy

The word effigy was found in an article by USA Today about the condition with Libya. It was found in a Feb. 27 article titled “Libya rebels gear up for fight in city near capital.” The story can be found by clicking on the following link:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-02-27-libya-zawiya_N.htm

The word was found in the sentence that stated, “An effigy of the Gadhafi hung from a light pole in the city’s main square.” Effigy in this sentence sounds like it means some sort of banner or poster that symbolizes some sort of political or religious expression.

Effigy-[MF effigie, fr. L effigies, fr. Effingere to form, fr. ex- + fingere to shape – more at DOUGH] –an image or representation esp. of a person.

            The word was interesting because I like the way it sounds, and it seemed somewhat familiar like I might of heard someone used it before.

Catch of the Week:

I recently received a wedding invitation from my brother who will be getting married soon. The invitation stated, “Your invited.”  That grammar mistake immediately caught my attention. The invitation should have stated “You’re invited.” Whoever wrote the message used the possessive form of the word instead of using the contraction that can also be stated as “You are.”

Headline Challenge:

I found an article from The Gainesville Sun with the headline “GPD major's family thanks his rescuers.”  The article can be found by clicking on the following link:

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20110211/COLUMNISTS/110219852/1020/news01?Title=GPD-major-s-family-thanks-his-rescuers&tc=ar

Improved headline: Family thanks rescuers for quickness

Favorite passage of the week:

My favorite passage of the week comes from an article by Rick Bragg, which was published in the St. Petersburg Times on Sept. 1, 1991 titled “The Story of Dirty Red.”  The lead states “The neighborhood has low rent and no trees, a leaky bucket of a place where dreams seem to run right on through.” I really like this line because it vividly paints a picture of the setting.  The place is obviously a public housing complex where people have dreams of things that are much bigger than the picture they see every day in their environment.  

Cutline 1

Boy Shield

Muhammed Badwan, a Palestinian 13-year-old boy is tied to an Israeli security vehicle. He was grabbed by officers after he was caught throwing stones with other teenagers and used a shield to prevent any further damage to the vehicle by demonstrators.

Hummer and Bus

A 2006 Humvee slams into the back of a Centerville School Bus carrying five students. The crash occurred Saturday afternoon at around 3 p.m. at the intersection of Portry Avenue and 15 Street.